Description: Postmortem photograph of an unidentified deceased child, ca. 1856-1860. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03845
Subjects: Children and death; Postmortem photography
 

Description: Postmortem photograph of an unidentified infant in a casket, ca. 1890-1910. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03848
Subjects: Children and death; Postmortem photography
 

Description: This is a portrait of a postmortem child. Postmortem photographs, sometimes called memorial portraiture or memento mori, were used as a way to remember the deceased and peaked in popularity around the end of the 19th century. This photograph was taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed “Ewing Brothers” and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06340
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Children; Portrait photography--United States--History; Photography of the dead; Postmortem photography
Places: Ohio; West Virginia
 

Description: Photograph of three (living) young children with the body of a deceased child, likely their sibling. Postmortem photographs, sometimes called memorial portraiture or memento mori, were used as a way to remember the deceased and peaked in popularity around the end of the 19th century. This photograph was taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed "Ewing Brothers" and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06341
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Children; Portrait photography--United States--History; Photography of the dead; Postmortem photography
Places: Ohio; West Virginia
 

Description: Photograph showing a painting of an unidentified woman holding a deceased child. This photograph was taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed “Ewing Brothers” and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03851
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Portrait photography--United States—History; Children and death; Postmortem photography
Places: Ohio; West Virginia
 

Description: Photograph of a deceased man in open casket. The casket appears to be outdoors and is surrounded by boughs and wreaths of flowers. This photograph was taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed "Ewing Brothers" and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03852
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Funeral rites and ceremonies--United States; Postmortem photography; Death--United States
Places: Ohio; West Virginia
 

Description: This is a portrait of a woman looking down at the deceased infant she holds on her lap. This photograph was taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed “Ewing Brothers” and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04687
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Portrait photography--United States—History; Women; Children; Cultural Ohio--Art and Artists; Postmortem photography; Funeral rites and ceremonies
Places: Ohio; West Virginia
 

Description: Photograph showing Communist Party leader Charles Emil Ruthenberg propped upright in his casket, surrounded by saluting children, 1927. Ruthenberg was the son of German immigrants and a native of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1909 he joined the Socialist Party and quickly became an active organizer. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Ruthenberg's political activities became increasingly radical. He was arrested for speaking out against the war and began to identify with Russian Communists. Eventually he became Secretary General of the Worker's (Communist) Party of America. When he passed away in 1927, his ashes were interred at the Kremlin in Moscow. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05165
Subjects: Workers (Communist) Party of America; Ohio History--Presidents and Politics; Ruthenberg, Charles Emil, 1882-1927; Postmortem photography; Funeral rites and ceremonies
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio);